Big-time poker star and writer Victoria Elizabeth Koren Mitchell
Victoria Elizabeth “Vicky” Cullen Mitchell is a British writer, television presenter, and poker player from England. She hosts the BBC quiz show Only Connect and has twice won the European Poker Tour Main Event.
Life
Koren Mitchell was born in Hammersmith, London, and is the daughter of journalist Alan Koren and doctor Anne Kasriel. She grew up in Cricklewood, London, with her brother, journalist Giles Koren. At the age of 14, she had the opportunity to publish a short story in the youth magazine Just Seventeen. She then won a writing competition in the Daily Telegraph and published a column there for several years, describing her teenage life. This later led to the book Love 16, published in 1989. In addition to the BBC quiz show Only Connect, Cullen Mitchell hosted the television series Balderdash and Piffle, in which she searched for historical evidence and the origins of entries in the Oxford English Dictionary. She is also a frequent guest on numerous British evening shows, such as QI and Would I Lie to You? In 2021, she participated in the twelfth season of Taskmaster. In one of the questions asked on the show, she admitted that she had never learned to ride a bike.
She also regularly writes columns for the British newspaper The Guardian and its Sunday edition, The Observer. Her book, Once Again with Feeling, which she co-wrote with author Charlie Skelton, recounts the authors’ attempt to plan and shoot a pornographic film. In her 2010 book For Richer, For Poorer, she describes her life as a poker player. Koren Mitchell has a degree in English from St John’s College, Oxford. Koren Mitchell has been married to actor David Mitchell since November 2012. The couple had a daughter in 2015, and their second daughter was born in 2013.
Poker career
Victoria Koren Mitchell https://znaki.fm/persons/victoria-coren-mitchell/ first made it to the prize table in a prestigious live poker tournament in 2001. Until 2004, she won her first prize exclusively at European Poker Championship tournaments in her hometown of London, where she recorded results in Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, as well as No Limit and Pot Limit Texas Hold’em tournaments. In July 2004, the Briton won the second season of the British television format Celebrity Poker Club in Cardiff and received the top prize of £25,000. At the end of September 2006, she became the first woman to win the main event of the European Poker Tour (EPT) in London, securing a prize of £500,000. This was equivalent to approximately $940,000 and is the highest prize money in her poker career. At the end of June 2007, Koren Mitchell achieved her first success at the World Series of Poker at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, finishing in the money in a no-limit hold’em tournament. In January 2009, she finished 30th in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventures Main Event in the Bahamas and won $40,000. At the end of April 2010, she finished 26th in the EPT Main Event in Monte Carlo with a prize pool of €40,000. In mid-November 2011, the Brit played in the IFP World Championship in London and finished second, earning her $100,000 in prize money. At the EPT in Monte Carlo, she won the heads-up tournament in April 2012 with a top prize of nearly €60,000.
Total winnings
In total, Koren Mitchell has won over $2.5 million in live poker tournaments, making her the third most successful European woman in terms of tournament prize money. She has also appeared as a poker commentator or host on various television programs and played in the first three seasons of the PartyPoker.com Premier League.